Tag: Maldives

Woman arrives for her honeymoon flight—then gets “surprise of all time”

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A woman expecting a short honeymoon flight to Mexico was left stunned at the airport after learning her husband had secretly planned an entirely different, far grander surprise—a dream honeymoon to the Maldives.

The moment, captured in a TikTok video posted by Luckaia Strand (@luckaiastrand), has gone viral, racking up more than 4.1 million views since it was shared on September 9.

Text overlaid on the video reads: “POV [point of view]: Your husband pulls off the best honeymoon surprise of all time.”

In the caption accompanying the post, she shared more details: “I thought we were getting on a 4hr flight to Mexico, instead we got on a 16hr flight to DUBAI! Maldives here we come!! MY DREAM HONEYMOON!”

The viral moment highlights how important honeymoon travel remains to many newlyweds.

According to a study by wedding planning website The Knot, which analyzed data from 17,000 couples in the United States who got married in 2024 as well as from couples getting married this year, around 69 percent of couples opt to take a honeymoon after their wedding.

The study noted that the main motivation for most couples is “to spend quality time with their significant other and create new memories together,” with time of year and weather playing key roles in where they choose to go.

In 2024, 41 percent of honeymooners stayed within the U.S., while 18 percent headed to the Caribbean and 17 percent traveled to Europe. Domestically, Florida and Hawaii tied as the top destinations, each chosen by 17 percent of couples, the study found.

The cost of a honeymoon varies significantly by destination, with couples spending an average of $5,300. Those who traveled domestically in the U.S. spent around $3,400, while international honeymoons averaged $6,800. The study also found that just over half of all couples paid for the trip themselves, while others received help from family or wedding guests.

‘This Isn’t Real Life’

In the case of the wife in the viral TikTok video, the Maldives—often cited among the world’s most luxurious honeymoon destinations—was a total surprise.

Her husband’s detailed months-long deception delivered a honeymoon she hadn’t dared to expect.

The viral clip begins with the wife innocently posing for a photo at the airport near a large window overlooking a plane. Her husband can be heard off-screen saying: “So cute, say cheese.” Moments later, he adds: “I gotta tell you something Kaia.”

“What?” she asks, and he responds: “We’re not going to Cancun [in Mexico].”

Confused, the wife presses further: “What do you mean? Where are we going?”

Her husband points to the plane behind her and says: “That’s our plane, we’re getting on that plane.” When she asks “Why?” he delivers the full reveal, saying: “We’re going to the Maldives.”

Still in disbelief, she replies: “No, we’re not,” prompting him to confirm: “We really are, I promise.”

“You’re lying,” she says. “I’ve been lying to you for nine months,” he replies.

As the realization sinks in, the wife says: “We’re getting on that plane?…I’m shaking, this isn’t real life,” as the video ends.

Newsweek has contacted the original poster for comment via TikTok. This video has not been independently verified.

A stock image of a smiling couple looking at a phone while seated next to suitcases at an airport.

Getty

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September 11, 2025
Mastercard Debuts New Tool, Free Seaplane to Hilton/SLH Maldives Property, Amazon Kindle Revamp & More

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News Roundup

This is a roundup of news and other interesting pieces that I’ve come across over the last few days. I thought they are worth sharing so I hope you enjoy reading them.

Get free seaplane transfers to this Hilton/SLH Maldives property (& possibly dinner too)

Thanks to Hilton’s new partnership with SLH (Small Luxury Hotels of the World), there are several more properties in the Maldives bookable with points and/or free night certificates, several of which allow you to book into overwater villas. One of those new – to Hilton – properties that lets you book straight in to an overwater villa is Milaidhoo Maldives. That’d be a big enough selling point for many people, but it becomes insanely good value when you take into account the fact that seaplane transfers are included within the award price.
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Mastercard Debuts New Tool for Verifying Cardholders’ ID

Let’s say you’ve just closed on your first home and want to order a bottle of champagne to celebrate. You’d place your item in your online basket as normal, and then be asked to confirm you’re old enough to make the purchase. In the background, Mastercard enables merchants to easily validate your age with your card issuer securely and without adding any unnecessary friction to your experience. Your card is enough.
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Amazon revamps Kindle line with faster page turns, AI, and a new green color

Amazon announced a refresh across the line. That includes updates to the base Kindle, Kindle Paperwhite, and the stylus-enabled Kindle Scribe. Amazon had to bring AI to the line sooner or later, so the Kindle Scribe is the first to get the honors. Leveraging the biggest Kindle’s note-taking capabilities, Amazon is adding text summaries, courtesy of a new notebook tab. The device will also clean up messy text scribbled with the Premium Pen stylus, so it’s legible while still looking like script.
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Marriott’s $40,000 Loyalty Perk: The New ‘Plus One’ Benefit Most Ambassadors Haven’t Heard About

Marriott appears to have added a new benefit for ‘overachieving’ Ambassadors who spend at least $40,000 in a year – at least it is a benefit for 2024 spend. Ambassadors who spend $40,000 are being invited to extend the same status to a spouse, significant other, or other member of their household.
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Regent Santa Monica Beach

Regent Santa Monica Beach reintroduces the legendary Regent name to Los Angeles and becomes the brand’s first flagship property within the Americas.” Originally located in Beverly Hills, and famously known as the setting for the film “Pretty Woman,” Regent returns along one of the nation’s most celebrated beaches and just steps from the famed Santa Monica Pier. The destination resort will deliver inspired stays through a blend of timeless elegance and modern luxury and is poised to usher in a new era of extraordinary experiences.
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Guru’s Wrap-up

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October 16, 2024
Social media uproar may cost the Maldives millions, as feud with India intensifies

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Social media posts by Maldivian officials may cost the country millions in tourism revenue, as calls by Indian travelers to boycott the island nation intensify.

“We are seeing a 40% drop in bookings over the last two days,” Ankit Chaturvedi, vice president and global head of marketing at the India-based travel software company Rategain, said Tuesday.

“Most people book on weekends, and therefore the drop seems more significant because ideally [bookings] should have gone up,” he told CNBC Travel.

Travel bookings to the Maldives tumbled following a diplomatic row that erupted last week after a series of posts appeared on X, formerly known as Twitter, on India Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s account.

The posts showed him snorkeling, sitting by the water and meeting people in Lakshadweep, which some viewed as a veiled attempt to siphon visitors away from the island nation.

Amid reports that thousands of Indian travelers have canceled trips to the Maldives, one prominent Indian travel booking website, EaseMyTrip, announced it is suspending flight bookings from India to the Maldives.

Some travel agents in India say they are canceling bookings to the Maldives, scrubbing their websites of its photos, and recommending travelers go to the Indian archipelago of Lakshadweep, the Andaman Islands, Nicobar Islands or Sri Lanka instead, according to The India Express.

The dispute has thrust a global spotlight on the little-known Lakshadweep, which like the Maldives, is a scenic chain of sandy atolls, coral reefs and crystalline water.

The Maldives, located some 340 miles to the south, is the preferred playground for India, however. In 2023, more than one in 10 arrivals were from India, making it the country’s largest source market, followed by Russia and China, according to Maldives tourism statistics.

But more British travelers — and nearly twice as many Italians — have visited the Maldives in the first week of January, compared to those from India, which fell to fourth place in terms of visitor arrivals.

In the absence of Chinese international travelers, Indians emerged as the region’s travel powerhouse in 2023 and are set to be the fourth largest global travel spenders by 2030.

If calls to #BoycottMaldives continue, millions could be stake.

Exact losses to the Maldives are hard to estimate, said Chaturvedi, but “India drove $380 million worth of tourism last year to Maldives, which is significant.”

The posts that kicked it off

Some blamed Modi’s posts for setting off the debacle even though they did not mention the Maldives, which has lost favor in India following the 2023 election of Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu.

Muizzu campaigned on an “India out” policy — in contrast to the Maldivian Democratic Party’s “India First” policy. He also broke with long-standing tradition by choosing China for his first official state visit this week, widely viewed as a snub to India.

India’s Ministry of Exterior Affairs did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment.

However, others say Maldives supporters, bristling at online comparisons to Lakshadweep, kicked off the row by writing negative comments about India’s ability to compete with its resorts and hospitality.

Maldivian Deputy Ministers Malsha Shareef, Mariyam Shiuna and Abdulla Mahzoom Majid lobbed various insults at Modi on X, calling him a “clown,” “terrorist” and “puppet of Israel,” according to Reuters.

Maldives’ Minister of Foreign Affairs Moosa Zameer sought to distance the country from the comments, writing on X that the remarks “are unacceptable and do not reflect the official position of the Government of the #Maldives.”

The three officials were suspended for their social media posts over the weekend, according to the news agency.

But the furor has only intensified since, underscoring the travel industry’s exposure to local geopolitical affairs, as well as the on-going conflict in the Middle East.

An inadvertent push?

As to whether Indian travelers are rescheduling their trips to Lakshadweep, it’s hard to say, said Chaturvedi.

“We cannot track this as there are not enough operations,” he said. According to TripAdvisor, there are just 13 hotels in the archipelago.

Given the mercurial nature of social media outrage, Chaturvedi said he expects the boycott will “pass quickly.”

But a national rallying cry to travel domestically will have much greater staying power, he said. Trending hashtags, like #ExploreIndianIslands, are being pushed online from everyday travelers to Bollywood celebrities, like Akshay Kumar.

Chaturvedi said calls to travel inside India “will last longer — it’s a big agenda of the government.”

An agenda which likely received a bigger push than those behind Modi’s serene photographs by the sea ever imagined.

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January 9, 2024
Is your hotel sustainable? Not if these two things are in your room, says Soneva’s founder

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Many hotels claim to be eco-friendly.

But are they?

A quick-and-easy test is to look for two items, said Sonu Shivdasani, founder of Soneva and Six Senses hotel brands.

First, sustainable hotels should not have branded water of any sort, he told CNBC Travel.

“When you have incredible filtered water, and where the tap water is pretty pure in most countries in the world … there’s no need to have any sort of branded water,” he said.

Not only does this reduce single-use bottles, but it’s healthier too, he said.

“There are quite a lot of brands of water that can be quite toxic, because they’re in areas where there’s sort of chemical pollution,” he said. Plus “plastic bottles are a carcinogen. You can imagine … that plastic bottle … sitting in a store for two or three months, getting hot and roasting.”

A better, cheaper option for hotels is to purify tap water and add electrolyte minerals, such as sodium, potassium and chloride, he said.

Next, check for toiletries in plastic bottles, which Shivdasani called “silly.”

“One should really buy in bulk containers, and then you refill in ceramic bottles,” he said.

But that’s really the bare minimum, said Shivdasani, who sold Six Senses in 2012.

He now focuses on Soneva’s three hotels: two in the Maldives and one in Thailand, plus another — Soneva Secret — set to open on a remote atoll in the northern Maldives in 2024.

The resorts serve guests produce grown on-site, rely partly on solar energy and recycle 93% of generated waste, said Shivdasani, who was awarded the 50 Best Hotels inaugural “Icon Award” for responsible luxury tourism in September.

‘Ecology is economy’

Shivdasani rejects the idea that operating sustainably is costlier.

“Ecology is economy,” he told CNBC Travel.

By relying more on solar power than diesel fuel, he said, Soneva resorts will save money in the long run.

“Our bankers are very supportive of us doing it,” he said. “The payback on this investment is about four and a half years.”

By making charcoal using fallen branches, Shivdasani estimates his company saves $20,000-$30,000 per year. Plus, on-site gardens deliver about $10,000 a month of vegetables — at market prices — into each resort, he added.

But Shivdasani doesn’t dispute that sustainability — at this level — is harder.

“It’s certainly not easier. But it’s more interesting,” he said. “It is more difficult, but it’s certainly much, much more fulfilling.”

A 2% environmental levy

As the tourism industry adopts more sustainable practices, one question remains: Who pays for it?

“Governments can create the context, but businesses need to make the change,” Shivdasani told CNBC Travel. “We can do that by making small changes to the way we do business that does not affect our profitability, but which can have a huge impact on people well beyond our shores.”

Nearly 80% of travelers will pay at least 10% more for eco-friendly travel, despite the cost-of-living crisis, according to a Euromonitor International report published in August.

Soneva Fushi, a resort in the Maldives where Shivdasani said he and his wife, Eva, live about half of the year.

Source: Soneva

Shivdasani said he decided to institute a guest environmental levy after the company measured its “scope 3” emissions.

“I didn’t know what scope 3 CO2 emissions were,” he said. “Scopes 1 and 2 are like the light bulbs, the air-conditioning … scope three is externalities outside the property [like] guests flying in, supplies coming in.”

Companies often fall short of reporting scope 3 emissions, said Kelvin Law, an associate professor of accounting at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University who researches corporate sustainability and financial fraud.

“Missing one out of three reporting scopes may not seem like a big deal — but it is,” he wrote for CNA, since they account for the lion’s share of most companies’ emissions. “Leaving out scope three emissions reporting is akin to solving a jigsaw puzzle without the largest piece — the picture is never complete.”

Shivdasani said that after Soneva determined that 85% of its carbon emissions were “scope 3” emissions, the company introduced the 2% carbon levy. That was in 2008.

“That’s why we said we had to do something about it,” he said.

Small changes

The levy has generated about $12 million for The Soneva Foundation, a British charity founded in 2010.

The revenue has been used to restore forests in Thailand, fund a 1.5 megawatt windmill in India (“giving the local community subsidized energy”) and to buy stoves in Myanmar and Darfur, Sudan.

“The cookstoves has been a fantastic investment,” he said adding that they not only reduce CO2 emissions but also decrease firewood expenses and the risk of lung disease. The latter causes an estimated 3.2 million deaths per year, including some 230,000 children under the age of five, according to the World Health Organization.

Moreover, the stoves have created a carbon surplus, he said.

“We now have two million surplus carbon credits, which is worth about $20 million,” he said.

The credits — which currently sell for $10-$15 each on the open market — are certified and then purchased by companies, such as Marks & Spencer, which use the credit to meet their own carbon reduction goals, he said.

The Soneva Foundation is reinvesting that money, using it to plant 1 million trees in Nepal and Mozambique each, among other projects, he added.

“It’s a small change, but it’s had this fantastically growing impact,” he said.

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October 30, 2023
Pro-China candidate Mohamed Muizzu wins Maldives presidential vote | CNN

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Reuters
—

Opposition candidate Mohamed Muizzu has won the Maldives presidential election, beating incumbent President Ibrahim Solih in a second-round runoff that could herald a pro-China shift for the Indian Ocean archipelago from traditional partner India.

With nearly all votes counted, the Elections Commission of the Maldives said on its website that Muizzu had received 54% of the ballots in Saturday’s vote, with 46% for Solih.

About 85% of 282,000 eligible voters in the Maldives, known for its pristine beaches and high-end resorts, turned up at more than 586 polling stations across 187 islands.

“I congratulate Muizzu for winning the election and thank the people for their exemplary democratic spirit,” Solih said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Solih, who championed an “India First” policy during his time in power, will remain as president until Muizzu’s inauguration on Nov. 17.

The coalition backing Muizzu has supported Chinese loans and investment projects in the past.

Former President Abdulla Yameen, who has close links to Muizzu, is serving an 11-year prison term for corruption and money laundering. Yameen’s supporters say the charges against him were politically motivated.

“Today the people made a strong decision to win back Maldives independence,” Muizzu told reporters in the capital, Male.

“All of us, working together with unity, Insha Allah, we will be successful.”

Muizzu also called on President Solih to release Yameen to house arrest.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent a congratulatory message to Muizzu following the announcement of his victory.

“India remains committed to strengthening the time-tested India-Maldives bilateral relationship and enhancing our overall cooperation in the Indian Ocean Region,” Modi said on X.

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October 1, 2023
$1,850 a day? What it costs to visit the 10 most expensive vacation destinations in the world
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Looking to splurge on your next vacation?

The travel website FloridaPanhandle.com analyzed costs in 100 popular vacation spots, looking into average prices for accommodations, transportation, food and attractions.

Here are 10 destinations that certainly call for big budgets.

According to the analysis, the most expensive vacation destinations, excluding flight costs, are:

Gustavia, St. Barts

Gstaad, Switzerland

Aspen, Colorado

Park City, Utah

Maui, Hawaii

London, England

Cocoa Island, Maldives

Maun, Botswana

Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

Monte Carlo, Monaco

The 10 most expensive vacation destinations around the globe.

Source: CNBC

The list was dominated by islands and ritzy ski towns, though the draw of eco-tourism safaris in Botswana and Europe’s financial capital, London, rounded out the ranking.

Where hotels average $1,000 per night

The Caribbean island of St. Barts is the most expensive vacation destination in the world, largely because of its high accommodation costs, which average $1,770 per night, according to the analysis.

Average hotel rates in Switzerland’s Gstaad (No. 2) are $1,360, according to the research. The town in the Swiss Alps also has the highest average food costs on the list, at $177 per day.

Accommodations at the third priciest spot — Aspen, Colorado — average $1,385 for one person, but a family of four can expect to pay $2,274, according to the analysis.

A street in downtown Aspen, Colorado.

Nik Wheeler | Corbis Historical | Getty Images

To find those prices, FloridaPanhandle.com researched average rates for four- and five-star hotels for stays during Christmas (Dec. 21-27) and the spring (May 19-25), but did not include taxes.

Attractions: from $0 to $333 per day

To estimate the price of activities, FloridaPanhandle.com calculated the average cost for each location’s three most-reviewed attractions on TripAdvisor.

The ski town of Park City, Utah, averaged $333 for daily attractions — the highest on the list.

Attractions in Maun, Botswana, Africa’s lone destination on the list, averaged more than $100 per day for activities like a one-day visit to the Okavango Delta.

Despite having higher overall average costs, St. Barts and the Maldives’ attractions were valued at $0. Vacationers may have to pay top dollar for hotels in those locations, but their beaches are free.

Monaco, Monte Carlo.

Ostill | Istock | Getty Images

Monte Carlo had one of the lowest average rates for attractions on the list, a surprising result for a vibrant gambling hot spot.

While “Monte Carlo is known for its casinos, it is also not the most popular thing to do in town,” said a representative from FloridaPanhandle.com.

According to the company, the three most popular attractions in Monte Carlo are the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco, an outdoor area called Casino Square, and the Casino of Monte Carlo, which has an entrance fee of 18 euros ($20).

Gambling losses, however, are not included in Monte Carlo’s average attraction costs.
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August 10, 2023
Ex-Maldives leader gets 11 years for money laundering, bribe

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MALE, Maldives — A court in Maldives on Sunday found the former president guilty of money laundering and accepting a bribe and sentenced him to 11 years in prison.

The Criminal Court of Maldives also ordered Abdulla Yameen to pay a fine of $5 million.

The court found Yameen guilty of accepting money for leasing an island owned by the government. He ruled the Indian ocean archipelago nation, known as an exclusive tourist destination, from 2013 to 2018.

It gave him a seven-year sentence for money laundering and four years for accepting a bribe.

This was not the first time Yameen was found guilty. In a separate case in 2019, Yameen was found guilty of money laundering and sentenced to five years in prison.

But two years later, the Supreme Court overturned the verdict, saying that evidence at the initial trial contained discrepancies and did not conclusively prove that Yameen had laundered $1 million in state money for personal gain.

Yamen lost a reelection bid in 2018 to current President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih.

During his time of office, he was accused of corruption, muzzling the media and persecuting political opponents.

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December 25, 2022
Venezuela, SKorea, Afghanistan lose vote for UN rights body

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UNITED NATIONS — Venezuela, South Korea and Afghanistan lost contested races for seats on the top U.N. human rights body in Tuesday by the General Assembly, which faced criticism for electing countries like Vietnam and Sudan, which have been accused of having abysmal human rights records.

The 193-member assembly voted by secret ballot to fill 14 seats on the 47-member Human Rights Council. Seats are allocated to regions to ensure geographical representation, a rule that has regularly led to many regions putting forward uncontested slates — as Africa, Eastern Europe and Western nations did this year.

Human rights groups have long criticized this practice, saying it denies U.N. member nations any choice of countries on the council and virtually guarantees seats for some countries with poor rights records.

In this year’s election, the most hotly watched race was in the Latin America and Caribbean regional group, where Chile, Costa Rica and Venezuela were vying for two seats. The result saw Chile get 144 votes, Costa Rica 134 and Venezuela 88.

Venezuela narrowly won a seat on the Human Rights Council in 2019. Louis Charbonneau, U.N. director for Human Rights Watch, welcomed Tuesday’s result, saying the General Assembly “rightly closed the door” on Venezuela’s attempt to remain on the council.

“U.N. investigators have found evidence that (President Nicolas) Maduro and other officials may have been responsible for crimes against humanity against their own people,” Charbonneau said.

“A government facing these kinds of allegations has no business sitting on the U.N.’s top rights body. Now U.N. member states should seek ways to hold accountable those Venezuelan officials responsible for grave human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings and torture.”

The other closely watched race was in the Asia-Pacific region, where Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, South Korea and Vietnam contested four seats. Bangladesh, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives and Vietnam were declared the winners.

Charbonneau said that “electing abusive governments like Vietnam to the council only undermines its credibility.”

In the uncontested regions, the assembly elected Africa’s slate of Algeria, Morocco, South Africa and Sudan, Eastern Europe’s candidates of Georgia and Romania, and the Western nations’ candidates of Belgium and Germany.

The 14 newly elected countries will take their seats Jan. 1 and serve until Dec. 31, 2025

The Human Rights Council was created in 2006 to replace a commission discredited because of some members’ poor rights records. But the new council soon came to face similar criticism, including that rights abusers sought seats to protect themselves and their allies.

On April 7, the General Assembly approved a U.S.-initiated resolution to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Council because of the rights violations it committed in invading and taking control of parts of Ukraine.

The vote, 93-24 with 58 abstentions, was significantly lower than on two resolutions the assembly adopted in March demanding an immediate cease-fire in Ukraine, withdrawal of all Russian troops and protection for civilians.

The assembly voted overwhelmingly on May 10 for the Czech Republic to replace Russia on the council.

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October 11, 2022